Lynas court hearing postponed

The hearing at the Kuantan High Court has Lynas said on Thursdaybeen postponed to allow the court to deal with some “preliminary matters”.
Photo: Reuters

by
Luke Forrestal

Lynas Corporation
has been frustrated in its efforts to see off a final legal challenge from protestors seeking to shut down its Malaysian rare earths refinery, with the court hearing postponed for an unknown length of time.

Lynas has dealt with two challenges brought by the Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas! protest group seeking to have the temporary operating licence for the $800 million refinery revoked. A third case was to be heard in the Kuantan High Court next week, but Lynas said on Thursday it had been postponed to allow the court to deal with “some preliminary matters". No new hearing date has been set.

However, Patersons Securities analyst Andrew Harrington said the courts’ rejection of the previous challenges boded well for the third case when it was eventually heard. “We believe the strength of the now substantial number of precedents will stand up well for Lynas," he said.

Despite the challenges, Lynas has been able to get on with commissioning the refinery and expects to have finished product ready for sale early this month. The company has also completed 90 per cent of the second stage of expansion to lift the refinery’s capacity to 22,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides a year. Lynas shares fell 2¢ to 64¢ on Thursday.